Trailer Tuesday: Shutter Island

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Of course I was tempted today to run the brand new A-Team trailer, but I decided it could wait, especially after I saw the trailer for the latest film from uber-director Martin Scorsese.

I loves me a good horror-tinged psychological thriller and Shutter Island looks like it delivers in terms of mind-bending plot twists and haunting imagery - both of which are major genre requirements. Speaking of genre, Shutter Island is Scorsese's first "commercial" thriller since 1991's Cape Fear. And I'm hoping that Shutter Island will be to his filmography what The Shining was to Stanley Kubrick's - a classy Grade A mindfuck.


Anyway, Shutter Island is based on the 2003 bestselling novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane, and it centres on 2 U.S. marshals, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), who, in 1954, are summoned to a mental hospital for the criminally insane - which is located on a secluded island off the coast of Massachusetts. It turns out that a dangerous murderess has inexplicably escaped from her high security cell, and as the 2 marshals investigate horrible truths emerge - about the facility, its staff and inmates, and about the marshals themselves.

And when a hurricane strikes, and more patients escape, things get only worse...


Along with DiCaprio (who is working with Scorsese for a fourth time here), Shutter Island's impressive cast also includes Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley and Max Von Sydow. The whole project is high pedigree, impressive looking stuff, and I'm very excited for it... even if there has been very little online buzz surrounding it, and a smattering of mutterings that the ending isn't satisfying at all.

Shutter Island is set for release in just a month's time, on 19 February in North America. The film is due for local debut on 12 March.

As a sidenote, 2010 seems to be the year of the Leonardo DiCaprio psychological thriller. This is the second week in a row I've blogged about one of his upcoming films from that genre.

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